Purpose of this study to be conducted is to identify the risk factor of low back pain amongst port crane operator and to improve the health management program in the company. The objectives of this study are to evaluate the major group of port crane operator that having low back pain problem, to analyse the risk factors that associated to low back pain problem (WBV, Awkward prolonged sitting and shift work-psychological) , individual characteristics (sport activity or hobby), to analyse the associated rate operator’s absence from work (medical leave) and low back pain problem and to propose the basic ergonomic assessment checklist for management to investigate health incident cases and fit-to-work (ergonomics) screening checklist for new recruitment. A survey research design through the distribution of the questionnaire and interview & field observation will
be used for research methodology. The population of this study consists of port crane operatorsRubber Tyred Gantry Operator (RTG). Questionnaire method used to collect all relevant information from correspondence. Interview also will be conducted to gain further details information. Data were analyzed with the usage of Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) to make the process of analysis easier. As result, firstly, the study shown that there are association of risk factor for working posture and years of exposure with Low back Pain. The null hypothesis was rejected and there is probability that these risk factors have influence the low back pain. It was also concluded that the null hypothesis was accepted which means there are no correlation of risk factors for heavy physical works, previous job experience, previous accident with low back pain problem. Thirdly, the study
shown there are no correlation of rate operator’s absence from work (medical leave) with low back pain problem as the null hypothesis was accepted with p value <0.05
Keywords: Port, Low Back Pain, Ergonomics, Occupational Safety & Health, Rubber tyre gantry, Back Pain
Kaempferia galangal rhizome is one of the traditional medicinal plant species in
Zingiberaceae family and well known as “cekur” in Borneo. Rapid emergence of
multidrug resistance of V. cholerae biofilm has increased the failure of antibiotic
treatment in recent years. This research was designed to demonstrate the
antimicrobial activity of K. galangal rhizome extract against twenty six (n=26) V. cholera
biofilm which were isolated from outbreak in Limbang, Sarawak in 2016. K. galangal
rhizome was analyzed by methanol extraction and tested against biofilm of V. cholerae.
The susceptibility of V. cholerae towards K. galangal rhizome was evaluated using disk
diffusion method which showed a maximum zone of inhibition of 12.0 mm at 1000
mg/mL concentration. As a result, the MBEC50 of V. cholerae was between 125 mg/mL
to 250 mg/mL while more than 90% biofilm eradication (MBEC90) was achieved by 500
mg/mL extract concentration. Extract-treated cell showed change in the morphology
of V. cholerae by destruction of cell wall. K. galangal rhizome extract acts as a potent
antibiofilm agent with dual actions by preventing and eradicating the biofilm of V.
cholerae.
Repetitive movement can lead to the pain muscle, nerves, and tendons that cause by
repetitive overuse of working task. The muscle will fatigue due to; repetitive
movement, force that been applied, posture during working and duration of working.
The stress level during working can influent the energy performance usage during
working. The aim of this paper is to analyse the influence of heart rate and muscle
activity of workers in composite manufacturing towards muscle fatigue. The data was
collected for a worker in hand layup department and the Qualitative method was used
in a way to investigate the working load and level of pain received by their body. Then,
the Qualitative data was sorted and the respondent proceeded for a Quantitative
method which involves muscle activity analysis and heart rate analysis. The tools that
were used to conduct these experiments were surface electromyography (sEMG),
Wristwatch with chest strap and perceived stress scale (PSS). The experimentation
used to calculate the average reading of heart rate and muscle activity during working
and detect the duration the muscle to start fatigue. Moreover, this paper analysed the
relationship between heart rate and muscle activity through the duration of working.
As an overall finding of this research, it was shown that the heart rate of the workers
influence the muscle activity of workers and has high potential relationship to the
fatigue of muscles of the workers in the layup department.
Bioethanol is one of the leading alternative biofuel to fossil fuels and can be use in
existing gasoline engines without any major modification. Bioethanol can be
produced from sugar containing biomass fermentation using different potential
strains. In this study, the gram negative, facultative anaerobic, rod shaped strain
‘Zymomonas mobilis’ was used as microorganism to produce bioethanol from sugar
cane molasses using anaerobic fermentation. The study was conducted to investigate
the optimized conditions for production of bioethanol through batch fermentation
process. The fermentation unit was designed to determine the effect of process
parameters such as fermentation temperature, pH, sugar concentration and supply of
nutrients. The Zymomonas mobilis produced 9.3% (v/v) bioethanol by utilizing 16
g/100mL sugar with the fermentation efficiency 92.5%. The fertilized based nutrients
were supplied to enhance the production of bioethanol yield. The bioethanol yield
produced by using this strain in optimized conditions is in good compromise with
previous study and also compared with commercially available yeast strain.
In this paper, the water driving cycle had been chosen to determine and compare the component sizing of conventional boat and Plug-in Hybrid Electric Recreational Boat (PHERB) powertrains. PHERB is an improvement on conventional boat to reduce the fuel consumption and emissions. The locations of water driving cycle in this research are at Pulau Kapas and Tasik Kenyir, Terengganu. Boat energy and power requirement was calculated according boat parameters, specifications and performance requirements to study the differences component sizing of conventional boat and PHERB powertrains. Power flow analyses are used to decide the size and capacity of main components for achieving the design specifications and requirements of conventional boat and PHERB powertrains. The results for PHERB powertrain requirement using steady state velocity are 20 kW at 3000 rpm for Internal Combustion Engine (ICE), 30 kW for Electric Machine (EM) and 5 kWh for Energy System Storage (ESS). The acquired results show that the PHERB gained the most existing powertrains and has extraordinary potential in applications to marine transportation in reducing fuel consumption and emission.
The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) has received extensive attention due to the alternatives it provides for reducing the dependency on petroleum. Nowadays, many simulation software such as ADVISOR and AUTONOMIE, were built to help in PHEV research. In this paper, the effect of three main PHEV powertrains such as engine power, traction motor power and battery capacity on fuel consumption, electric consumption and carbon oxide emission is studied using AUTONOMIE. The simulation is designed and run using AUTONOMIE with example of commands used in MATLAB. The overall simulation results show that the fuel consumption decreases as the motor power increases with the same battery capacity and engine power. In additions, the simulation results also show that the electric and fuel consumptions are contrary to each other. Meanwhile, the carbon oxide emission and fuel consumption increase following each other’s.
Anaerobic wastewater treatment technology has become one of the most popular technologies due to its economic and environmental benefits. Therefore, a reliable method to study the specific methanogenic activity (SMA) of anaerobic sludge is presented using SMA test. This test helps to determine suitable organic loading rate (OLR) to the anaerobic process. Meanwhile, SMA act as a benchmark to the anaerobic system performance where a slight change in SMA stipulate the accumulation of inhibitory substances from influent wastewater. One of the possible substances that inhibit the anaerobic digestion process is the presence of excessive light metal ions such as sodium (Na+) from the wastewater. The objective of this research was to investigate the specific methanogenic activity of anaerobic sludge in anaerobic filter and anaerobic digester as well as to compare and analyze anaerobic methanogenic bacteria under the effect of potentially inhibitory compound in both anaerobic digester and anaerobic filter. Two sources of inoculums (one from the anaerobic digester and one from the anaerobic filter) were adapted with sodium with varied range of concentrations which was 0 to 5 g Na + /l, before conducting SMA test by means of pressure differences. For the anaerobic digester, the SMA varied from 0.25 to 0.31 g COD/g VS.day meanwhile for the anaerobic filter, the SMA varied from 0.40 to 0.51 g COD/g VS.day. The result obtained confirmed that sludge from POME have better tolerance towards sodium than influents from petrochemical wastewater.
Muhammad Adil Khattak, Nurul Syahrizzat Mohd Yasin, Hannah Natasha Andjani, Puteri Nurailah Husna Mohd Tajuddin, Sakeshraj Narajah, See, Zhi Fei, et al.
Geopolitical risks will less affect the oil supply in the United States due to its stability
and widespread oil sectors since 1970s. Nevertheless, energy prosperity in the United
States appears differently in relation to a fuller period for conventional energy export
states where geopolitical challenges have been intensified by monetary pressure and
escalating energy demand in residential areas. The relationship between the United
States and other energy export states will continue to change as the United States
becomes more independent and non-OPEC resources become worthwhile especially
in Western Hemisphere. With expansion of global economic growth, maintained
multilateral relationship among countries and technological development are two
prominent concerns to secure long-term energy supplies and to enable further
exploration of new energy sources.
Muhammad Adil Khattak, Mohammad Azfar Haziq Ayoub, Muhammad Ariff Fadhlillah Abdul Manaf, Mohd Faidhi Mahrul, Mohd Ridwan Mohd Juhari, Mira Idora Mustaffa, et al.
Energy supply security is a vital aim of energy policy in countries across the globe.
Global energy security is one of the main concerns as it depends on the concentrations
of the energy supplies political pressure from energy exporters. In Europe’s case,
energy security has been of large concern by the gas crisis which resulted from gas
prices and debts that caused the halt in Russian gas flowing through Ukraine’s
pipelines. The crisis coincidentally happened during the increasing concerns in the
nationalism resource of energy exporters as well as the circumstance involving high oil
prices. Europe’s economies were a huge concern as it was susceptible of energy
exporters’ political pressure and the rivalry with the resource demanding China. Energy
security, however, is still confused as it is shown in political actions. The focus of energy
security in the U.S. has originally been to reduce the susceptibility of it towards political
manipulation and that has tipped the politicians to voice out for the independence of
energy increasing shares of renewable energy. The plan of energy independence in
Brazil, however, had come to a reality as there were timeframes of politician
represented a rising share in fossil fuel supply imports and lowered shares of
renewable energy as to encourage energy security. For other countries, the energy
security they went for was the protection of the poor in countering the products price
instability while others highlight the prominence of defending the economy in contrast
of the disturbance in energy service supplies which is done by letting the prices of
products to increase in times of shortage. The paper will define the energy security
better in terms of the European Union as to shed some light on the issue. It will review
the European Union and the global energy security whilst including the implication of
oil market which will be concentrated in terms of EU, elaboration of the energy security
of EU in context of foreign relation, the physical security issues and challenges faced
by EU, and the elaboration of energy policy of EU.
The purpose of this research is to enhance the gain signal amplification by using dual
pump double pass configuration in comparative with single pump double pass that are
commonly used as conventional optical amplifier configuration in optical
communication system nowadays. Two input signals power have been implemented
which are -30 and 0 decibel (dB). The input signal defined as low and high input signals
power by using a pump power of 1480 nm. The amplification of EDFA in this study have
been taken place in conventional band (C) band and long wavelength band (L) band of
EDFA within the range of 1515 to 1615 nm. Therefore, to understand the performance
of the gain amplification, the OptiSystem software simulator version 13 has been used
for simulation and the values of fiber length and pump power has been varied for both
configurations. It has been found that the, dual pump double pass configuration has
shown better gain performance at lower input signal power compared to the single
pump double pass configuration.
Recently RESS method has been used by researchers to produce fine particles for pharmaceutical drug substances. Since RESS technology acknowledges a lot of benefits compare to conventional method of ginger extraction. Therefore, the objective of this research is to produce direct solid oil particles formation from ginger rhizome which contains valuable compounds by using RESS-CO2 process and to study the effect of pressure and temperature on extraction yield. RESS experiments were carried out at various extraction pressure of 3000, 4000, 5000, 6000 and 7000psi and at different extraction temperature of 40, 45, 50, 55, 60, 65 and 70°C, respectively for 40 minutes extraction time and constant flowrate (24ml/min).From the studies conducted, it was found that extraction pressure is an important factor that can affect particle size and extraction yield. By increasing the extraction pressure, the extraction yield was found to increase with increasing of pressure at constant temperature, but extraction yield was found to decrease with increasing temperature. The highest extraction yield is 2.41% obtained at extraction pressure of 6000psi and constant extraction temperature of 65°C.
In the past few years, solid liquid extraction (SLE) has shown greater potential in extraction of rare earth elements (REE) compared to liquid-liquid extraction (LLE). The objective of this study is to analyse the extraction behaviour of dysprosium (Dy) using the extractant immobilised resin (EIR) in SLE. In this study, the synergist activity between ionic liquid (1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([C2mim][NTf2]) or 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium bis(trifluoromethanesulfonyl)imide ([C4mim][NTf2])) with conventional extractant of Aliquat 336 (A336) were investigated and the most effective synergist extractant (SE) was further immobilised onto resins (CR11, HP20 and SP207) to synthesise EIR. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) was used to detect the concentration Dy before and after extraction. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) and field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM) were used to characterise EIRs. From the study, [C2mim][NTf2] showed better compatibility with A336 since this SE (A336- [C2mim][NTf2]) gives higher extraction efficiency of Dy at 90% compared to A336- [C4mim][NTf2] with less than 11% efficiency. SLE using resins immobilised with A336- [C2mim][NTf2] proved that only EIR1 (CR11) can effectively extract Dy compared to EIR2 (HP20) and EIR3 (SP207). The porosity of CR11 was higher compared to other resins which made EIR1 very efficient in adsorbing Dy. Plus, using 0.1 g of EIR1, 100% of Dy was extracted from 5 mL of aqueous phase in SLE compared to 2 mL of aqueous phase in LLE. Conclusively, this research has the potential to improvise the conventional practise of LLE into SLE using EIR with reduction in the use of extractant.
This paper has evaluated the spatial growth of Bauchi Metropolis from 1976 to 2015
through the application of Remote Sensing and GIS techniques. Various satellite
imageries of the metropolis (Landsat MSS of 1976, TM of 1986, 1996 and ETM+ of 2006
and 2015) were integrated; processed and classified using ERDAS imagine 9.1. The
results showed an increase in area from 11.68km2
in 1976 to 12.51km2
in 1986 to
32.44km2 in 1996, to 49.66km2
in 2006 and finally to 89.23km2 in 2015. It is
recommended that government should provide the required capacities for the use of
Remote Sensing and GIS in planning for the growth of the town.
Value management explicitly targets to optimize value by providing necessary
functions at the least cost without sacrificing quality and performance. However, the
activities/methods of this technique in emerging economies are here and there
related to informal methodology. Therefore, the occurrence of these activities in an
evolving economy requires investigation. The exploration of the extent to which the
measured variables influenced the latent factors informed the need for this study.
Data was retrieved via self-administered questionnaire from 344 registered and
practicing construction professionals in Nigeria. The data was analyzed using SPSS for
descriptive analysis and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin
measure of sampling adequacy revealed that the internal consistency of the
developed research instrument was appropriate. Confirmatory factor analysis
indicates satisfactory goodness of fit among acknowledged determinants of the
model. Furthermore, the study revealed three (3) phases of the activities/methods of
value management in the Nigerian construction industry which include: information,
information/function analysis, and creativity/evaluation/development/presentation
phases. This means that value management activities and methods are being
practiced in Nigeria, however not as per the typical methodology or standard. The
need to carry out the practice according to the formal value management
methodology is therefore recommended.
This article presents a Wall Climbing Robot (WCR) that able to move on ferromagnetic vertical surface to carry out visual inspection process. Visual inspection process is important in the industry to check the condition of storage tank, surface of building, piping or equipment thus can prevents structures collapsing or explosion which would bring a huge loss to the company. Moreover, most of the structures nowadays is expose under the sun and rain, corrosion and cracks could easily occur on the surface after exposing under sunlight and rain a long period of time. Therefore the periodic visual inspection process need to be carry out to detect the damaged occur on the surface of the structure and take action at the fastest time to ensure the safety of the structures and extend the lifespan of the structures. With the well maintenance to the structures, the condition of the structures is monitored and the lifespan is longer. The risk of collapse of the building is decrease by a large margin. Normally, the periodic visual inspection process is performed by operator. Sometime the temporary scaffolding is needed to reach the higher place to carry out the inspection. However, this method create a hazardous environment to the operator and cause the safety of the operator threatened. Therefore, the proposed WCR could help operator to work at the hazardous environment. The permanent magnet is used to provide adhesion for WCR, thus WCR able to move on vertical ferromagnetic surface. The WCR is controlled by operator via wireless remote to reach the higher place or the hazardous environment. The operator then can stream the on the real time images via web browser which connected to the same network with the WCR. Hence, the condition of the surface can be observed.